


Free Spirits

by Absolutely_Barbaric



Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: Ghosts, Hurt/Comfort, Laurent opens up for one and a half full seconds, Lots of cute bullshit, M/M, Pillow Fight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-11
Updated: 2018-05-11
Packaged: 2019-05-05 05:48:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14610816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Absolutely_Barbaric/pseuds/Absolutely_Barbaric
Summary: During a rough storm, Damen discovers that Laurent firmly believes in ghosts. So firmly, it makes him a little suspicious.





	Free Spirits

"Does it storm often in Ios?"

 

The signs of disappointment were easier to read in Laurent's body language than in his choice of words. Through his depressed shoulder against the opening to the balcony and his arms tightly folded, Damen found charm even in his sulk, although he wasn't too pleased by the onslaught of rain that greeted them on their second vacation. Especially not after the months it had been since they'd so much as seen the other. Or held hands. Or used the bed.

 

"It's not usually this bad," Damen said. "But we can still have fun. The palace is huge, I don't think even I've seen all of it before."

 

Traversing through miles of intricate garden, stargazing and correcting Damen on his constellations, none of that was doable. Try as he might to stifle what he saw as childish pouting, Laurent couldn't yet mirror his optimism.

 

"Show me to the library, then. I'm sure that would be unexplored terrain for you."

 

"I was thinking more along the lines of something else."

 

Laurent smiled to himself, faintly blushing. It was already night, and they still hadn't. He supposed it was about time, after all these months. "Like wha-"

 

A pillow hit him on the back of the head. He turned around, bewildered, and found that it was indeed a pillow at his feet, and a grinning Damen sat upright on their bed.

 

Hardly a moment passed before he hurled it back at the speed of a discus, pleased with his skilled face shot while Damen landed dramatically on the ground.

 

"You, sir," he huffed as he pretended to struggle pulling himself up, "have committed treason against the King. Draw your weapon if you are a man."

 

Casually, Laurent armed himself with a throw pillow that had been embroidered with rough thread and buttons. It was strategically chosen, despite their joking. "Does it count if I've posed as a woman multiple times to save the King's behind?"

 

"Only if you didn't like it. En garde!"

 

Fighting back a grin harder than he was fighting the man before him, Laurent brought his pillow up in defensive stance before swinging, unable to stop himself from laughing as soon as he was whacked in the side and even more once he saw feathers fly. Still, the gears in his mind were turning. Damen was laughing harder, so much so that he had to catch his breath in intervals Laurent could quickly predict. The strategy was simple; weaken the King by pelting him while he was catching his breath, and take him down.

 

As Damen clung to the bed post, wheezing and wiping tears from his eyes, Laurent struck him with a flurry of actually quite painful pillow assaults, the barrage raining down on him harder than the storm outside.

 

Almost harder.

 

The crack of lightning just outside was startling enough to freeze them both in their tracks. It appeared they couldn't enjoy the summer outside, and now, they couldn't even enjoy their bedroom- albeit not in the way he'd anticipated- in peace without their parade literally being rained on. With slow movement, Laurent set his pillow to the side and eyed the nearest window as though he might be able to tell the storm off. Unfortunately, weather did not respond to verbal abuse. He let it go with a sigh and arranged himself delicately on the sheets despite his tussled hair and chiton.

 

Damen, having given up as well, sat next to him. There really wasn't a lot they could do with it so dangerous outside. Softly, he said, "It almost feels like we're being haunted. I was told the head of house passed away last month, maybe that's it..." His mouth was jokingly upturned, but Laurent only stared at him with blank eyes. "Oh, don't get too scared. I bet his ghost wouldn't really cause any mischief. It's just bad weather, and bad timing at that."

 

"Ghost...?" Laurent asked. He sounded the word out, but it wasn't familiar to him. It was then that Damen remembered they'd been conversing in Akielon as Laurent recently tended to do in his country, and was about to clarify himself with the Veretian translation when it dawned on him that he couldn't think of it. He supposed he never needed to say it before.

 

"The un-dead," he explained, "Like apparitions of people who died and come back to start trouble or haunt people." The look he got back was still blank, but there seemed to be a bit more understanding this time.

 

"Those are  _spirits_ ," Laurent said, "They don't cause trouble. Why would they?"

 

Spirit, that was the word. Damen made a mental note of it and shrugged with a passive smile. "Well, ghost or spirit, it's just folklore anyway. I'm surprised Vere has such a positive view on it."

 

"They're real," Laurent suddenly insisted. "I read plenty of books about it when I was younger. Corrupt souls lose their spirit, so when they die they just disappear, but truly good people will live on even after they die to..." His body tensed, never a good sign as Damen had learned. It was obvious that he was talking too much, too fast. "...To watch over their friends and family."

 

"You're really adamant about this," Damen observed. "Have you seen a spirit or something?"

 

"Of course not." Laurent frowned at him, then frowned even deeper when it sank in how idiotic he sounded. He had to remind himself that it was even more idiotic to believe that ghosts could haunt you or make trouble, as the Akielon belief apparently went. But with the rain pouring louder and louder, it was hard not to feel like some unstoppable force was messing with them for kicks.

 

It wouldn't be the first time.

 

"I never would have thought you to believe in all that fantasy stuff," Damen went on. He didn't know if he wanted to tease or not, as Laurent wasn't looking at him with the friendliest of glances. But he was glad to know more about him like this, and glad to know his position even on things like ghosts or spirits, whether it be unreasonable or not. It simply struck him as odd, seeing Laurent so stubborn about anything. At least this openly.  "Whose spirit do you think I pissed off to start this storm?"

 

"I told you, they don't do things like that," Laurent argued. "They're simply... _here_ , and that's it."

 

He'd said that was it, but Damen knew there was more to it than that. The way that Laurent threw things out there was...hard to catch on, but he was getting it after a while, just as he'd come to know quite a bit of him that'd been turned from the rest of the world. Even about something as silly as his belief in the supernatural, he wanted to know all of Laurent's feelings behind it. He wanted Laurent to know his own.

 

Leaned heavily against Laurent's tight shoulder, Damen offered him a smile and got one in return, shy and uncertain but genuine all the same. He adored seeing a smile like this, just as much as he adored seeing his triumphant smiles. This side of the Veretian King was all his own. He would treat it gently when Laurent was shy this way.

 

"You know, Nikandros believes in that stuff too. You can't convince him otherwise, he's talked my ear off for hours before about how mad my father would be if he saw me with..." Damen fell silent very fast, scratching the back of his neck.

 

"I'm elated that he and I have so much in common," Laurent said. His eyes narrowed again. "It's not exactly the same thing."

 

"You seem to be very sure about the way this works."

 

"I'm sure because it's  _true_. Why are you being so..." He gave an exasperated sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You claim that I'm adamant, but aren't you asking too much?"

 

"About  _ghosts?_ "

 

"They're not ghosts!" Damen hadn't seen it coming, but despite Laurent's raise of voice being no louder than the commands of a captain, he felt it like his father's booming hollers after he frustrated him with too many questions. Laurent heard it in himself too, and quickly tried to quiet down. It was more difficult than he expected it to be. With Damen, so many things were so unusually difficult.

 

"They're the spirits of those who died honorably, and they're  _real_ , Damen, they've got to be real because...because-"

 

" _Auguste,_ " Damen breathed the word out.

 

Laurent looked up at him with wide eyes. He'd been digging his fingernails into his knees the whole time, which left an embarrassing indent that he tried to focus on rather than the full embarrassing outburst. On instinct, he felt that name like a blade in his heart, and it took a moment to recuperate. It took a lot of moments, because Damen was devastatingly right.

 

He believed that Auguste was still with him. It shocked Damen at first, thinking that someone like the Laurent he first met was holding such a strong hope all this time. He thought of the mountains near Acquitart, and the fondness with which Laurent spoke about it, wondered if he believed Auguste was there with him then. He oddly thought back to Ravenel, when Laurent held Nicaise's earrings in his hand and watched out the window, searching the world for what looked like nothing to Damen.

 

"There was no way I could believe it," Laurent murmured. "For days I didn't believe it. I was waiting for him to wake me up from a nightmare. Paschal was the only person who came and talked to me, and he said...that even if I couldn't talk to him or see him or hear him, Auguste was still there. He said that he was with us right then, and I could have sworn I felt his presence in our- ... _my_ bedroom."

 

His gaze became serious, and Damen watched him without a word.

 

"I spent all of my time looking into it. Father wasn't alive to scold me for being so bookish anymore, and as long as I kept myself busy, I didn't really have to think about my reality. Until-" He swallowed hard. "Until my uncle had every documentation of it banned for talk of witchcraft. The truth is, he didn't like that I was too busy for him."

 

To talk like this was territory so unexplored he could feel himself shuddering. It was the first time he'd ever wanted Damen to touch him at the same time as feeling like this, and just by meeting his eyes, there was a steady arm around his shoulder, shielding him from seeing the troubled fury in Damen's eyes by mere mention. The warmth of it set his body still again. "As long as Auguste was still here somehow, it didn't matter if I could talk to him or ask him for help. I just thought of him being proud of me while I did things on my own." He gave a sideways glance at Damen. "So much for that."

 

"You did pretty good," Damen said. "I would have skipped the flogging me and verbally annihilating everyone, but you did well, Laurent. You should be proud of yourself."

 

"They're real," Laurent said again, "because you sound so  _much_ like him sometimes..."

 

He didn't know his own intentions by reaching for Damen's hand, but there didn't need to be any. Before he knew it, he was enveloped in the comfort of a giant barbarian's chest, and the whole situation was so strange it made him laugh. He laughed hard enough for tears to prick his eyes, and for it to sound like he was crying, but surely he was just laughing.

 

Auguste's spirit, he knew, was running a hand through his hair the way he used to, stroking it smoothly back and adjusting him a little so he could at least breathe and not suffocate himself. He was whispering to him, and all Laurent could think was that all these years, he just needed this one more time.

 

As his heart began to ease up, he knew this would be the last time for real. Because he didn't need him anymore, Auguste would be free to leave his side and do as his spirit wished, as the legend went in the book he managed to sneak away and hide under his bed. His hands clutched fabric, but he wasn't afraid to let go. For the first time, it finally felt good to remember him. Laurent knew he was gone, and he still felt good. He could only hope that would last, though he didn't doubt it would. 

 

" _Damen,_ " Laurent said. Damen looked down at him, sifting his fingers through his hair one last time before gently touching his cheek. "You were right."

 

"I was?"

 

"We are being haunted."

 

"What?"

 

Damen sat back, completely bemused. But, strangely enough, Laurent still seemed certain in what he was saying. "There's only one person who would follow me all this way just to cause us trouble. After all, he never did like you." When the both of them looked at each other, they knew.

 

"Excellent. Our palace is being haunted by an angry fourteen-year-old, of all the bad vacations..."

 

Laurent chuckled, and Damen cracked a smile too. It was no wonder he slipped while dismounting his horse, either. And got a worm in his apple. And banged his head on the doorway, although that was a little common for him anyway. "It's  _your_  'spirit' though, isn't it? Why is Nicaise targeting me so much?"

 

"I don't know. You're the one who knows all about this evil ghost stuff."

 

"I told you, I don't actually believe in that!" Damen couldn't help but trickle off into laughter again, too worn out from all this talk of superstition even though he could admit, it seemed like the sudden cessation of thunder that quieted down into a little patter of rain seemed pretty reminiscent of a boy's prank being caught. When he saw Laurent head out onto the balcony, he let him be. The feathers had to be picked up, after all. He didn't want a servant in their room right now.

 

 

After a while, he came out to watch the clouds clear, stunned to see the moon so blue behind it. Laurent, on the other hand, didn't look at all surprised. Damen supposed he didn't expect any less, but he still watched it for a while, making its dizzying reflection over the seas.

 

"I take it you want to show me the gardens again?"

 

"Actually, I kind of did want to find out where that library is."

 

Laurent glanced at him, and Damen gave him a sheepish grin. "You were right, I've never been there. I know we have one, though."

 

"Then we'll find it together. Maybe you can educate yourself."

 

"I'd rather have you teach me," Damen said. He let his hand rest over Laurent's upon the railing.

 

"There's a lot more I want to know."

**Author's Note:**

> spoiler: auguste created the storm because damianos of FUCKING akielos stole his brother


End file.
